Anil Raj at IITAJ on India's Growing Role in Building Bridges Between India’s Tech Talent and Japan’s Digital Future

As Japan advances its digital transformation, India's technology talent is becoming an increasingly important partner in meeting its innovation and workforce needs. In this exclusive interview with JapanCalling.in , Anil Raj, President of the India-IT Association Japan (IITAJ) and Founder & President of RAJ GROUP, shares his entrepreneurial journey, the vision behind IITAJ, the opportunities emerging from AI, and why trust, patience, and cultural understanding remain the foundations of long-term success in Japan.

Q.  You have spent years building a successful business in Japan. Looking back, what was the biggest challenge you faced as an Indian entrepreneur, and what did it teach you about doing business in Japan?

A. Honestly, the biggest challenge wasn't money or competition, although those certainly play a big role too. In Japan, the way these factors play out is quite different from other countries — and I can say that with some confidence, having lived in and travelled to several countries before I started my business here.

The real challenge was patience. I spent my early career on the technology side of investment banking, inside large global banks, where everything runs on deadlines, deliverables and tight project timelines. You are trained to be fast, structured and systematic. When I started building my own businesses in Japan, the skill set required was completely different from what I had been used to in the banking world. Here, trust plays a far bigger role than it does in most Western countries, and trust is built slowly — over a lot of meetings, and a lot of small promises kept.

I'll admit it frustrated me early on. Something I felt could be settled in a single meeting would take three. It took me a while to understand that those three meetings were the point. Once I understood that, I stopped fighting the pace. In Japan you don't really "win" a market; you earn the right to stay in it, and that takes time you have to be willing to give.

Q. Japan and India are closer than ever in technology and innovation. From your perspective, what makes this partnership unique compared to other global tech collaborations?

A. To me, the thing that makes India and Japan work is that the two countries complete each other instead of competing. Japan has tremendous engineering discipline, deep pockets, and an ageing workforce that needs people. India has the world’s largest pool of young technical talent and a habit of solving problems cheaply and fast. Neither side really feels threatened by the other, which you cannot say about every trade relationship.

And there is something underneath the economics — a real respect between our two peoples that goes back centuries, long before any of us signed a trade agreement. When you put genuine economic fit together with genuine goodwill, the partnership tends to last instead of fizzling out after the first deal.

Q. Many Indian startups and IT companies see Japan as an attractive market but are unsure where to begin. What opportunities are they often overlooking, and what would you tell them today?

A. The biggest thing they miss is the mid-sized Japanese company. Everyone flies into Tokyo chasing the famous names, but the real gap is in the thousands of solid, profitable regional firms that are trying to digitise, have no real tech team of their own, and are watching their workforce shrink. They don’t want a vendor; they want a partner who will stick around.

What I tell people is fairly blunt: don’t show up with a sales deck, show up ready to localise. Hire someone who actually speaks Japanese. Respect the procurement process even when it feels painfully slow. Treat your very first client as a reference you will be quoting for the next decade. The companies that try to crack Japan in a quarter usually pack up and leave. The ones who come in patient are the ones still standing years later.

Q. IITAJ was created to bring Indian IT entrepreneurs together under one platform. What inspired this initiative, and how has the association evolved since its launch?

A. The idea of IITAJ — the Indian IT Association Japan — actually came out of a casual conversation at the Indian Embassy with Mayank Joshi, then Deputy Chief of Mission. My co-founder Jishnu Madhavan and I were talking informally about the problems small Indian IT companies were facing in Japan, and that discussion with the Embassy is what eventually led to the formation of IITAJ. A few months later it was formally inaugurated and launched at the Embassy of India by our then Ambassador, Sanjay Kumar Verma.

What struck us was that Indian IT entrepreneurs in Japan were all quietly struggling with the same things — visas, hiring, figuring out Japanese business culture, landing that first client — and we were each doing it alone, from scratch. It seemed wasteful. We felt that if we simply pooled what we had learned the hard way, the next person wouldn't have to begin at zero.

At its heart, IITAJ was meant to be an association where Indian IT companies could collaborate rather than compete in isolation. And that collective strength has paid off in very practical ways. On several occasions, for instance, we were able to secure free exhibition space for our members purely because we approached as a group — something none of us could have achieved had we gone in individually. That is the real value of acting together.

That was the whole idea behind IITAJ. It has grown a great deal since — from an informal group of friends helping one another into a proper platform that connects members with each other, with Japanese companies, and increasingly with policymakers on both sides. The part that still surprises me is that newcomers now reach out to us before they have even landed in Japan. We went from solving our own problems to opening the door for the next lot, and that is the change I'm happiest about.

Q. Artificial Intelligence is reshaping industries across the world. How do you see AI creating new opportunities for collaboration between Indian technology companies and Japanese enterprises?

A. India has long been known and respected the world over for its IT skills, and Japan is no exception. AI is still fairly new, but I am confident that, with the right policies, India will once again lead the world in supplying the relevant technical skills. It is true that AI may reduce the demand for India's traditional stronghold of coding and IT services — but reskilling a young, capable population towards AI is not a difficult task, and that is exactly where India's advantage lies.

The fit between the two countries is almost perfect. Japan is one of the most rapidly ageing societies in the world — among the oldest, in fact — and AI, for all its promise, still needs young talent to build and run it. India is the largest supplier of human resources to the world, with exactly that young, technically minded workforce. On top of that, Japan is sitting on decades of rich industrial and operational data — in manufacturing, mobility, healthcare, robotics — but often lacks the AI engineering depth to make full use of it. Japanese domain knowledge combined with Indian AI talent is a natural partnership.

There is a bonus, too: AI is finally chipping away at our oldest obstacle, which is language. Translation and localisation that once took months now happen in moments, and that lowers the cost of entry for Indian firms considerably. But I do caution our members about one thing — Japanese companies adopt new technology carefully, and they will always value reliability over whatever happens to be new and shiny. The Indian firms that succeed here will be the ones who back up their cleverness with the kind of rigour Japanese clients expect.

We already see most of the major American technology companies being led by people of Indian origin. In time, I would like to see that same trend take root in Japan. But the real key to success here is not technical brilliance alone — it is adaptability, and a genuine sensitivity to Japanese culture. Any company or individual who innovates while respecting the Japanese way of doing things will, I believe, succeed in Japan.

Q. Beyond technology and business, success in Japan often comes down to trust and relationships. What cultural lessons should Indian entrepreneurs understand before entering the Japanese market?

A. A few things, and they matter more than most people expect. In Japan, how you do something counts as much as what you actually deliver — being reliable, punctual and humble isn’t “soft,” it is the currency you trade in. Indian entrepreneurs also tend to be expressive and quick, which is a strength back home, but here you have to learn to listen for what is not being said, because a lot of Japanese communication lives in the silence.

And above all, think long term. Your Japanese partner is not really evaluating this quarter’s contract; they are quietly asking whether you will still be a dependable partner twenty years from now. Show them you respect their process, that you will protect their reputation, that you keep even your small promises — and you will find Japanese partners to be about the most loyal you will ever have. Once that trust is there, it rarely breaks.

Punctuality in Japan deserves a special mention. Over the years, drawing inspiration from a few old Japanese sayings I picked up along the way, I've come to sum it up in a line that newcomers often find useful: "If you are on time, you are already late; if you are five minutes early, you are on time; and if you are thirty minutes early, you do not know how to manage your time."

Q.  As President of IITAJ, what is your vision for the future, and where would you like to see the India-Japan technology partnership — and IITAJ itself — five years from now?

A. IITAJ cannot succeed on the efforts of just one or two individuals. I would encourage more Indian IT companies to come and join hands, and to play an active role without worrying too much about positions or designations. Our focus is largely on helping small and medium-sized IT companies enter Japan and find their footing here. We want to see more Indian IT companies come and expand in this market, and wherever IITAJ can be of help, we are glad to lend a hand — the more the merrier. We would also welcome the chance to work with larger Indian organisations such as NASSCOM, to develop the Japan IT market together; having been on the ground here for years, we understand its realities in a way few global bodies can.

Five years from now, I would like the India–Japan tech partnership to stop being described as "emerging." I want it to be the obvious choice — the first place a Japanese company looks when it needs digital talent, and a stable, high-trust market that Indian companies actively choose rather than stumble into.

As for IITAJ itself, I would like it to be the bridge that any Indian tech entrepreneur instinctively crosses on the way into Japan — one that cuts their learning curve from years down to months. I would love for us to be mentoring not just companies, but the next generation of founders who choose Japan on purpose. The businesses we each build won't last forever; the bridge we leave behind might. If we have managed to make that bridge a little wider and a little easier to walk, I will be content with what we did.

Q.  Beyond IITAJ, you are also the founder of RAJ GROUP, which spans an unusually wide range of sectors. Could you tell our readers what the group does — and how you hold such a diverse portfolio together?

A. The range tends to surprise people, though it grew quite organically over almost twenty years rather than by any grand design. RAJ GROUP spans hospitality, education, technology and skilling today. It all started with our Nirvanam group of restaurants, serving North and South Indian food in Tokyo — though in the beginning we started out as the first truly South Indian restaurant here. That same hospitality journey is what led Amitabh Singh and me to help set up the Indian Restaurant Association Japan (IRAJ), so that Indian restaurateurs here would have a shared voice. From there came Star Kids International Preschool and our language school on the education side, Nehan Technologies in IT consulting, and more recently a move into skill development and human resources — helping bring Indian talent into a Japanese workforce that genuinely needs it.

I should be honest, though: none of this is the work of one person. Each part of the group rests on people far more capable than me in their own areas. Ajay Kumar and Nityanandan Balakrishnan look after our skilling and HR work, including the caregiver and specified-skilled-worker programmes. Jaidevi Gohil guides our kindergarten and education side. Nehan Technologies I run alongside Jishnu Madhavan, who, as it happens, is also my co-founder at IITAJ. Gopal Raj (my brother) runs the digital marketing agency and also takes care of other interests of RAJ GROUP in India. My own role these days is less about running anything day to day and more about trying to keep things pointed in the right direction and then staying out of the way of good people. If twenty years here have taught me anything, it is that you don't build any of this alone.

Q. Before we close, would you like to leave a message for entrepreneurs who want to come to Japan and build an IT company — or any other business, for that matter? And can they reach out to you for help?

A. I'd simply say: come, but come prepared to stay. Japan rewards those who are patient and willing to commit for the long term. It is not a market you conquer in a hurry, but for those who respect its way of doing things, it is one of the most loyal and rewarding places in the world to build something. Don't be discouraged by the early hurdles — almost every one of us who is here now faced the very same ones.

And yes, absolutely, they can reach out. That is precisely why IITAJ exists — so that no newcomer has to start from zero the way many of us once did. Whether it is a quick question or a serious plan to set up here, I am always happy to help where I can, and our wider community even more so. People are welcome to connect with me on LinkedIn. If sharing what we have learned the hard way makes someone else's journey a little smoother, that is the best use I can think of for it.